At least 176 passengers and crew members have been confirmed dead in the South Korean plane crash early this morning (West African time).
Initial estimates put the dead at 23 by firefighters and early rescue responders when the Jeju jetliner, a Boeing 737-800 carrying 175 passengers and six crew members and coming from Bangkok, Thailand, skidded off the runway at Muan International Airport at landing and burst into fire.
According to a CNN update on the crash, two people survived, both crew members, while three people are unaccounted for.
Footage showed the aircraft sliding on its belly before bursting into flames.
Local fire officials and aviation experts say some sort of landing gear malfunction was likely the cause of the crash.
The pilot also made a mayday call shortly after the control tower warned about birds in the area.
The investigation into the crash could take years.
The Jeju Air jetliner was carrying 175 passengers and six crew when it crash-landed at the airport in Muan county. All on board were South Korean except for two Thai nationals.
The plane, listed as a Boeing 737-800on FlightAware, had traveled from Bangkok, Thailand.
Analysts say both the Boeing 787-800 and Jeju Air, South Korea’s largest low-cost airline, have a strong safety record.
Survivors found in tail section of plane, the only part that retained some of its shape, fire chief says
The two confirmed survivors of the Jeju Air crash in South Korea were rescued from the plane’s tail section, the only part of the aircraft that retained some of its shape, Muan fire chief Lee Jung-hyun told a briefing.
The survivors of the crash, a male and a female crew member, are being treated in hospital.
“Only the tail part retains a little bit of shape, and the rest of (the plane) looks almost impossible to recognize,” the fire chief said.
Video and images from the scene show the mottled and charred remains of the aircraft, most of it turned black from the fire. Only the tail section is visibly intact.
Questions around response of ground team in South Korea crash, analyst says
There will be questions asked about the response of the ground team at Muan International Airport in South Korea, where a Jeju Air flight crashed on Sunday killing at least 176 people, an aviation journalist told CNN.
“There are a lot of questions here about the response to this incident from the ground perspective,” said Geoffrey Thomas, editor of Airline News.
In a situation like this one, more preparations could have been put in place by ground operatives before the plane reached the runway, Thomas suggested.
“With an emergency like this, why (weren’t) the fire tenders [tankers] out there beside the runway? Why hadn’t they put foam on the runway?” he asked.
There are also questions around the situation on board the plane, Thomas said, including why the aircraft’s undercarriage was not lifted when it tried to land.
This could have happened because of hydraulic issues, though a bird strike, one of the speculated reasons behind why the plane crashed, “would not have probably caused that issue,” he said.
Both black boxes now recovered from crashed airliner
Both black boxes from the South Korean airliner that crashed at the Muan International Airport on Sunday (early this morning) have been recovered, including flight data and voice record, according to a briefing from the Land Ministry.
The ministry said that it appears from videos that the plane’s landing gears were not out, but they will investigate further using flight data from the recording device.
Runways at the international airport will be closed until 5 a.m. local time January 1 (3 p.m. ET December 31), the ministry said.
Rescue work is still underway, the ministry added.
Credit: cnn.com
